Gains once made now lost

AUSTRALIA’S domestic tourism market declined significantly in Jul after months of gradual recovery, Tourism Research Australia (TRA) has found, with Australians taking just six million overnight trips and spending just $3.4 billion for the month.

Both of these numbers were a large deviation from prepandemic levels, with a rise in the COVID-19 Delta variant leading to widespread lockdowns and border restrictions across the country during the month, including increased restrictions in Greater Sydney, and statewide lockdowns in Victoria and South Australia.

In Jul, overnight spend across the country was also down 43%, declining the most in the ACT (down 81%), New South Wales (down 77%), Victoria (down 49%) and South Australia (down 46%).

Overnight trips also shrunk by 49%, while there was also a 38% fall in nights stayed.

Interstate travel was more affected than intrastate travel due to border closures, while overnight trips for the interstate category fell 75% and spend was down 61% to $1.7 billion.

Meanwhile intrastate spend was down 18% to $2.4 billion, with intrastate overnight trips contributing 60% to total spend, up from 41% in Jul 2019.

Australians took 9.8 million day trips and spent $1 billion for the month, which was a 56% fall in spend and a 55% fall in trips.